Building Browser Extensions: Create Modern Extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge

The ultimate guide for building modern Chrome extensions.
Get the book's companion extension at buildingbrowserextensions.com

About the Book
Web developers today have plenty of experience with building regular web page apps, but a lot of that knowledge doesn't transfer over when it comes to creating browser extensions. This book provides a complete reference for how to build modern browser extensions.

Creating and deploying a browser extension is more like building a mobile app than a website. When you start building an extension you'll often find there are a large number of new concepts and idiosyncrasies to wrangle with. This book reveals how to successfully navigate around these obstacles and how to take advantage of the limited resources available.

You'll see how a browser extensions work, their component pieces, and how to build and deploy them. Additionally, you'll review all the tricky bits of extension development that most developers have to learn through trial and error. The current transition from manifest v2 to v3 is of special interest, and an entire chapter will be dedicated to this subject. By the end of this book, you will have a rich understanding of what browser extensions are, how they work, all the pitfalls to avoid, and the most efficient ways of building them.

You will:
 
 

• Understand the best ways to build and deploy a modern browser extension
• Learn wow to build a browser extension using modern web development tools
• Fast-track your understanding of browser extensions
• Build browser extensions using modern tooling and frameworks like Webpack and React
• Understand the implications of the transition from manifest v2 to v3
• Complete reference of browser extension APIs and features
• Learn to build cross-browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge

Who This Book Is For
This book is for web developers who want to learn how to develop and deploy a modern browser extension. Developers familiar with modern JavaScript frameworks will be able to directly apply their knowledge to building a browser extension with frameworks like React or Vue. This book is also for individuals who wish to quickly roll out a browser extension prototype or side project; it covers a broad range of tools and platforms that can manage all the boilerplate and underlying APIs automatically.

Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 

1. What Are Browser Extensions?
2. Fundamental Elements of Browser Extensions
3. Browser Extension Crash Course
4. Browser Extension Architecture
5. The Extension Manifest
6. Understanding the Implications of Manifest v3
7. Background Scripts
8. Popup and Options Pages
9. Content Scripts
10. Devtools Pages
11. Extension and Browser APIs
12. Permissions
13. Networking
14. Extension Development and Deployment
15. Cross-Browser Extensions
16. Tooling and Frameworks

Matt Frisbie has worked in web development for over a decade. During that time, he's been a startup co-founder, an engineer at a Big Four tech company, and the first engineer at a Y Combinator startup that would eventually become a billion-dollar company. As a Google software engineer, Matt worked on both the AdSense and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) platforms; his code contributions run on most of the planet's web browsing devices. Prior to this, Matt was the first engineer at DoorDash, where he helped lay the foundation for a company that has become the leader in online food delivery. Matt has written three books, "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers", "Angular 2 Cookbook", and "AngularJS Web Application Development Cookbook", and recorded two video series, "Introduction to Modern Client-Side Programming" and "Learning AngularJS". He speaks at frontend meetups and webcasts, and is a level 1 sommelier. He majored in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Matt's Twitter handle is @mattfriz.